Leo’s eyes open.
He’s never really been skiing. But he imagines that this is how it would feel to go skiing downhill at high speed, get caught in an avalanche, run into a bunch of trees as you get caught in the torrent of snow, and finally get buried.
He’s cold. He’s numb. He feels logical and lucid, but also somehow knows that he’s disconnected from his own body.
“Do not look down at your limbs,” he hears Doctor Zap say. “It will make you will feel uncomfortable. However, you are healthy.”
Leo has trouble vocalizing. Doctor Zap anticipates his question. “Doctor Lee is recovering as well. Her illness means it will take longer. However, once you have rested, I will take you to see her.”
Good enough. Leo feels consciousness slip away again.
He wakes up and passes out again a few more times. He doesn’t remember if anything was said or done. In a lucid moment, he sets himself a problem: figure out why he’s so okay, being trapped under Earth’s ocean in a hostile country, having just undergone surgery.
The next time he wakes up for real, he’s sitting upright. The light is very bright, and he closes his eyes once the discomfort grows too much.
He hears Doctor Zap’s voice, but not nearby. Out in the corridor? Is that… Saito?
If they were speaking English, they definitely aren’t now. Leo’s head is still foggy. He’s pretty sure the conversation is in Atlantean. No use trying to listen in, he doesn’t have the first idea where to begin.
Time passes, and the door to the chamber deflates and opens. Doctor Zap enters. Behind him, a human captive wheels in a chair containing a fellow patient. It’s her. Ji-a Lee. Doctor Zap signals the attendant to leave. He follows as well, after a wave of a tentacle.
“How do you feel?” Leo asks.
There’s energy in her voice, and color in her cheeks. She doesn’t move much, but Leo’s own limbs are still weak, and he figures she’s in the same boat. “Ah! So much better. Finally, the pain is gone.”
A rush of relief washes through Leo. “Good. I’m glad.” He laughs, and it hurts, but it’s worth it. “Honestly I thought you were dead, so I guess anything’s a step up from that.”
“Dead? Ah. Perhaps you know, then? Is Karl okay?”
Leo draws in a sharp breath and winces. “Dad’s alive. He’s uh, he’s in a safe place. Because there’s a lot going on there. Let’s put that off for now, I promise I’ll get to that.”
Ji-a sighs in relief. “Okay. Thank God. I was so worried, with everything that happened.”
“You mean the tsunamis?”
“Yes. Everything was shaking. We had no warning. Do you know what happened?” Ji-a leans forward in her chair.
Leo thinks back to what Rossum told him. “King Winter, a supervillain, was conjuring ice comets to Earth. It was going to destroy all life.”
Trace blinks at his teammate’s question. “What invasion? The Atlantean invasion that King Winter was working to stop.”
Fuko shakes her head. “I can’t imagine not learning about it. Why keep it a secret?”
Trace shrugs. “Probably because nobody likes talking about what losers they were. But they apparently thought they could win at the time. Nautilus went to anybody who would listen, saying Atlantis was coming. Nobody did. They all said it was just some underwater thing, nothing as big as an actual alien invasion from outer space. That if he couldn’t handle it when it happened, he could call them for help. So he went to supervillains, like King Winter. And King Winter called in the comets.”
Ji-a is listening intently. “But the comets were stopped, or we wouldn’t be here. How?”
“The Gales, Tempest and Silver Streak pushed their speed powers to the limit and shifted the Earth’s magnetic field to push them back. They saved the world.” Leo grins. “And then I ended up on the same super-team as their son, Harry.”
Trace smirks. “And then I end up on the same team as King Winter’s son, who tells me some of this, and you from Atlantis itself, and I have Nautilus who tells me the rest. This is kind of my topic, you know?”
Fuko frowns. “That event devastated the world, and killed thousands, even when it was stopped. Did Nautilus know what he was doing?”
That question stops Trace for a moment. He shrugs it away. “I don’t think he did. Kid Kelvin thinks the stress of doing it broke his dad. Or the guilt of it. At least AEGIS knew what happened. They set up a pension for the family and put the old man in a secure location.”
Fuko frowns. “And now it all might start again.”
Leo watches his mother’s smile fade.
“I was worried that the tsunami was related to Atlantis,” she confesses. “While down here, I learned that they had happened at the same time as a military build-up, for an attack on the surface world. Perhaps the threat of the comets made them draw back.”
“I overheard Zpa’kadishtuor and Mgepnnn Ah’lloigshogg speaking in the corridor earlier. The Surface Science Center is to be incorporated into the military. I think what happened all those years ago might be happening again.”
Leo wants to stand up, wants to act, but still feels the weakness of recuperation holding him down. “We have to stop it, then.”
Trace sighs. “I don’t know how to stop it. A whole nation, that nobody knows about, suddenly invading the rest of the world? How do you stop something like that?”
For the first time, Fuko feels herself on solid ground. “The Menagerie did it, with Vyortovia. We can work together. We can do it again.”
She packs up her own gear, and heads toward the exit to the cave. “Come on, Trace. We’re going to find Leo, and we’re going to save the world!”